Underground mines present many safety issues with regard to miners working in the mines. In particular, when a portion of a mine shaft or tunnel caves in or becomes obstructed or when miners suffer from medical conditions and are unable to exit the mine, it is desirable to locate and communicate with the miners. Conventionally, mine communications systems use either wired page phones running on batteries or radio wave communications. Wired systems are limited to areas where the page phones have been installed and the cables are subject to damage. One form of radio wave communications systems use a surface antenna providing a one-way short text message to the miners, but the coverage is typically limited to an area of 2500-3000 ft. in diameter. Other radio wave communications systems use a cabled network, known as a leaky feeder, and individual underground radio units (e.g., walkie-talkies) communicate with the network using the VHF band. However, since the radio waves do not penetrate the rock, communication is problematic if the radio units and network elements are not within “ling of sight” of each other.